Republicans Don’t Care About Sandy Victims

On the walls of the FDR Memorial here in Washington are etched these powerful words of President Franklin Roosevelt: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

Republicans in Congress flunked that test. They proved twice this week that they don’t care about those who have too little – and only care about those who have much.

First, by their willingness to destroy the economy unless they got continued tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

Second, by breaking to vote on disaster relief to the New York and New Jersey victims of Hurricane Sandy, as they had promised.

Sure, after a tidal wave of protest, they have now scheduled a vote – sometime in the next Congress. But the fact remains: In this Congress….Now…When the money is needed…When the help was promised…Instead of taking 15 minutes to do the right thing….

Republicans in Congress turned out the lights and walked away. They showed us all, once again: For them, helping those who need help is just not a high priority.

8 Responses to Republicans Don’t Care About Sandy Victims

“First, by their willingness to destroy the economy unless they got continued tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.”

No Bill, quit being stupid. They agreed to let the tax cut expire. They just oppose the idea of raising revenue without cutting spending (which of course didn’t happen).

“Second, by breaking to vote on disaster relief to the New York and New Jersey victims of Hurricane Sandy, as they had promised.”

Umm Bill, they are more than willing to vote on a clean bill to provide disaster relief. Why do you democrats always have to tack on loads of pork to these types of bills? Really Bill? Does Sandy disaster relief really need to cover fisheries in Alaska??

Hey Bill, I hope Current doesn’t fire you (or make you wear a hijab….) It’s funny how your mentor and God Al Gore tried to sell the network off before December 31st. It seems the tax burden would have been a lot less if he had made that deadline. I guess he wanted to avoid paying his fair share in taxes for the $100M he is expected to be paid……

Really Bill? Sandy hits in late October and a vote on Jan 3 is at issue? Where’s the President been on this if the Dems care about Sandy victims? What happened to ‘no red tape’? Why didn’t the democratic controlled senate pass something back in say, november if they care so much about sandy victims? Why haven’t you been talking about it for months if you care so much about Sandy victims? Remember, it was a Republican controlled congress, senate and white house that passed Katrina releif 10 days after the storm hit, maybe we ahve a leadership problem at the top?
“It’s funny how your mentor and God Al Gore tried to sell the network off before December 31st.” He also sold it to a foreign owned company(isn’t that evil?) when he had equivalent offers from US citizens. Not to mention he took dirty, ugly carbon producing oil money! Oh, and I think they are pretty strong supporter of assualt weapons. Talk about cognitive dissonance!
Looks like Bill will be out of job:
“…Al Jazeera plans to shut Current and start an English-language channel,…”
Read more at http://macdailynews.com/2013/01/03/apple-board-member-al-gore-sells-current-tv-to-al-jazeera/#kExWPpaTJCaQj1I6.99

Brewster: the Republicans did that last year, lowering America’s credit rating, increasing payments and the debt and further damaging the economy, and proved themselves willing to even more seriously damage America in extorting from the American people what the corporations and wealthiest few they serve wanted – at the expense of the people and country they’re sworn to serve.

They tried holding their country and countrymen hostage again this year – a habit that needed to be broken.

jeffg1967: the Senate had the bill and all of the paperwork ready – apart from a relative few, the Republicans weren’t interested in doing their jobs any more than they have been over the past 4 years, and the sufferings of others simply don’t concern them, because they have no empathy and no sense of honour.

Honestly, people in civilized democracies have been simultaneously horrified and amused by your Republicans ever since the second Bush was transplanted into the White House although they’ve worsened considerably even from there and have really taken the fruitcake, so to speak.

Makes you wonder what’s really in those tea-bags – my money’s on locoweed.

You both might want to educate yourselves, at least as much as people in democracies around the world do themselves.

Although your corporate-run media is so distorted, due to the removal of protective law preventing the presentation of known lies as news, something necessary to protect democracy and true freedom of speech, that it’s hardly surprising that you’ve been duped so heavily.

This article that you criticise is actually an excellent and accurate presentation of the situation and problems – it’s unfortunate that some people’s ability to discriminate between facts and lies have in some cases been eliminated by what amounts to brain-washing and that so many Americans have so far been unable to free themselves and stop arguing against their own self-interest and in favour of those who so callously use them.

Aren’t you tired of paying taxes to support greedy corporations already making billions in profits, and billionaires with much of their money offshore, out of the economy, to avoid paying their fair share of tax – with worker’s wages and benefits being steadily cut to as low as they can get away with to increase profits by draining workers, so that 50% of the American population share 1.1% of the wealth, 10% of the people hold 74.5%, and the top 1% have 34.5% of the wealth of the country – with this disparity growing because of the way the Republicans pandered to the top 1& in altering policy?

Do you really believe that Republicans – known for turning on each other and their own leadership – that they’ll mysteriously have any respect for, or loyalty to, you, because you’ve been conned?

Unless you guys are multimillionaires and financially useful to them, you don’t matter at all to them, and if you’d been in a disaster area, suffering as some of these latest victims are, you’d have been looking at your ruined house and ruined place of work for close to two months now, broke, unemployed, homeless, everything in your life destroyed, possibly including love ones, cold and hungry, wondering why you’d been abandoned by the Republican Congress, too.

And even if you were a multimillionaire caught up in a disaster, they’d likely be wondering how to buy up your holdings cheaply or some such thing, since you were vulnerable and that gave them a potential opportunity to profit personally from your misfortune.

That’s how too many of them think…

Their nasty back-stabbing little self-interested world is no place for anyone to survive – and, if allowed to create America entirely in that image, ultimately, it’s doubtful that anybody would.

Any one with half a brain (I guess this is why Bill Press doesn’t get it) know that the Republicans were standing against the Hurricane Sandy disaster aid bill because of all the pork that was added onto it including a $150 million in funding for Alaskan fisheries, $336 million in Amtrak expenses, $2 million in taxpayer funds to repair a room on one of the Smithsonian buildings in Washington D.C., $8 million to purchase new vehicles for federal agencies, and a total of $4 million for repairs to the Kennedy Space Center. While Republicans were frugally turning off the lights, Obama was headed to Air Force One to return to Hawaii at a cost of $1.8 million to taxpayers.

Where were all you money counters 10 years ago.
What happened to ALL OF THE GOLD in the World Bank at WTC ?
Wheres the $9 Billion that got lost in Iraq?
Wheres the $3trillion that the Fed Executive Officer cant account for? NO Idea whatsoever where it went. Or even who they loaned it to.
Wheres the $43 Trillion that was stolen from the NY Fed??
OMG!
Where did all the money go??
How much is tucked away in Belize and such?
I dont care either, and I’m glad we didnt get any of it.
Let those who have never had any,
have fond memories of never getting any,
Not as a punishment,
But,
As a reward.

Well stated dorothy. amen.
Dick Armey wont be able to stop laffing at them. He’s retired from FreedomWorks with salary of $400,000/ year for twenty (20) years. $400,000 X 20 = $8 Million
How much did the freedomworks teabaggin fans get? How many proposals were written to include them? To willfully vote against your own better interests takes a level of stupidity that I just cant imagine.

‘it’s unfortunate that some people’s ability to discriminate between facts and lies’… of course Dorthy you presume to be above this? While daily kos might not be ‘corporate run’ has it not occurred to you that it is highly biased? Afterall it’s goal is to strengthen the democratic party so do you really think you’ll find unbiased ‘news’ there? By going there all your doing is re-enforcing your already preconceived notions. So you really have no legitimate argument against a fox viewer other than that you disagree. Really daily kos, huffpo, alternet etc. are nothing more than left wing echo chambers the same as fox is for the right, so you’re no different, just on the opposite side of the coin.
As stated before I’m ok with paying taxes, I’m not ok with our inefficient bureaucracy that waste it, created by both republicans and democrats. As stated before I think BOTH sides are to blame. If you think the dems are not equally accountable in this mess then it’s you who have been conned.
As far as Sandy is concerned we didn’t hear a peep from either side after the election until it became a political weapon. If the dems were so concerned about the Sandy victims why couldn’t we have had clean Sandy bill that addressed only funding for Sandy and nothing else?
Oh, and why hasn’t Harry done anything to pass a budget since he came to power?